


Rookie Mistake

by TwoCatsTailoring



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-02
Updated: 2015-03-02
Packaged: 2018-03-15 22:14:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3464006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwoCatsTailoring/pseuds/TwoCatsTailoring
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elena does not acquit herself well at first. Rude provides perspective.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rookie Mistake

She had nearly blown a fuse on the Director. With the newly minted President Rufus ShinRa in the room. Rude had almost failed to hide his shock at the near-miss and Tseng's look as he had turned to follow Elena out of the room was clear. 

_Fix this._

To have Reno in first form right now would have been nothing more or less than a blessing. Rude could not remember ever wanting to see his partner's ugly mug so much in his life. As it was he was on an elevator headed down with a rookie who was beet red and fuming under her lopsided haircut and now he was the one who had to fix this.

Rude spent a good thirty seconds mentally annoyed by the fact that this fell to him but then brushed it aside. Couldn't be helped, couldn't be changed, and this was a mission. Because if Elena did not get her shit straight she was going to blow everything. 

They needed her, but they did not need her to bring her personal baggage with her on her first mission.

Her tirade began before he even had the latch set on the boardroom door. Off she went, venting her spleen as he just listened. Eventually, she got to the point.

"And how dare they take that high-handed attitude!" She did a horrible job mocking Tseng as she repeated, "You are perfect for this task. All it is is talking too much."

She paced and he perched his backside on the table. "Assuming that I'm good at talking too much because I'm a woman! I thought this department was better than that sexist bullshit. I was better than Emma at everything and he's still giving me the run around?"

Here, Elena stopped, chest healing and her face a snarl of anger. "Well, aren't you going to say anything?"

So here it was. The reckoning. And he was going to deliver it like a slap in the face because they didn't have time for anything else. And because the only way through to her was probably going to be brutal truth. She thought she was dishing it out, she needed to learn how to take it.

"In this department," Rude began with a slight incline of his head to one side, his voice quiet and even, "You make your own worth. Right now, you are proving yourself to be a liability rather than a help."

Elena's mouth opened, her brows knit together in a defensive line, but he cut across her interruption smoothly. "You have bordered on insubordinate by questioning your orders, you have done so in front of both your Director and your President, and you have stood here in this room for ten minutes complaining about a perceived injustice done to you."

"It is not perceived!" Was the insistent response she managed to get in.

He cut her off again, raising one hand in a palm-down slicing motion. "You are attempting to dictate to your senior officers how they should do their jobs when you say that. You have been doing this job yourself for less than 48 hours. You have exactly no say in any decision made right now."

"Yeah, but I've known you guys for years and Emma...."

At least she wasn't shouting anymore but Rude was still living up to his name in interrupting her, "Gun is irrelevant to this conversation," that hurt more than he would have liked, his chest tightening as a sentimental thought flicked over all of his teammates, friends. Family.  Rude slapped himself mentally. There was no time for that right now. They had to move soon or lose the chance. "She is also irrelevant to your performance. Your foreknowledge of the Turks and how we operate was made up of our public face and your own assumptions."

Elena remained silent. This was a vast improvement as far as Rude was concerned and he saw it as an opportunity. "The only thing you need to be concerned with right now is your performance. Your sister can not do the job that falls to you. And the job that falls to you is the easiest first mission I have ever heard of."

He scowled deeply at her, arms crossing over his chest. "You had a choice to join this department. It is time for you to act like the Turk you are. That is the only way you will ever manage to earn the respect of your superiors."

He'd hit a nerve. Somewhere, he'd hit a nerve and she was waking up to the reality of her position. She might have taken this job as an attempt at one-upping her sister, but there was no way she would keep it if she was questioning orders and getting angry from the beginning. Not in the position that they occupied right now, not with so much up in the air and unknown. 

He pushed off the table and checked his watch. "We have a final meeting in here in ten minutes. Be ready."

* * *

 

It was four hours later, in a chopper headed southeast on the understanding that the party they were tracking would go through the Mythril Mines, that she finally spoke in more than monosyllables. 

"You were right," and it was costing her a lot to say that. Rude could tell even over the slight static of the headset that she was straining every word. Forcing herself to say things that her pride had no interest in admitting out loud. "And I am sorry."

"It isn't me you should apologize to," he said immediately, scanning the air ahead. "It's the Director."

Elena heaved a sigh and he saw her shoulders shift in annoyance from the corner of his eye. "Yeah, it is. But I wasted your time. I'm sorry. I should have...," if it were possible to hear an eyeroll, he heard it, "remembered my position."

Did he need to verbally agree with that? Probably not, but he did nod. 

"I'll apologize to the Director next chance I have." Rude thought to himself that she didn't sound so thrilled about that prospect and he wasn't sure how Tseng would take it. Still, she needed to do it.

After several more minutes he asked, "So do you forgive me?"

That surprised him and for a moment he took his eyes off the scan of the skies and looked at her. Her hands were balled in to fists on her lap and her mouth was white at the strained edges. Did this really matter so much to her? And more importantly, did he actually forgive her? 

There could be no lies between Turks. That only ended badly, usually with bloodshed and angry leadership for time lost due to injury. So he thought for a while, eyes returning to the sky, before he answered. "I do. But I will not forget this. You've made your own job harder because you could not think clearly and control yourself. From now on, I and everyone else who witnessed it will remember this and you are going to have to work twice as hard to prove yourself."

She frowned, took a few deep breaths and he thought for sure she was going to go off again. Her first words between gritted teeth did not give him much hope. "Just you wait."

A deep breath that blew out into the mic. "You'll see. Starting today. This is going to be the best ignorant n00b routine you have ever seen."


End file.
